When I was a young ‘un wondering what I was going to do at college, I had a fairly naive understanding of what design was all about. I was sure that product design (as it’s more commonly called in England) was all about sketching swoopy crap kettles, irons and hair dryers. At the time, design to me equaled horrible cheap injection molded plastic. And to be brutally honest, after I finished my degree in Engineering Design, I still held that opinion.

It was only when I moved to London and started working in design, did someone that was the most design focused person I’d met to that point. He showed me a book that changed everything. AppleDesign, probably taught me more about design than my four years at college ever did. Thank you James.

Written by Paul Kunkel, with photographs by Rick English, it showed me how a group of designers can pay such meticulous attention to the use, the form and the overall logic of a product. It blew my mind back then and it’s still a serves as reference for me today.

The book is structured into two parts, one text based the other pictorial, with hundreds of photographs of models, sketches and finished products. My favourite concept was called Jonathan by Hartmut Esslinger (in 1985) that created an architecture for a computer that allowed you to build the computer you needed ‘brick’ by ‘brick’. A recent Microsoft/IDSA (student) winner for a multi media centre called ‘Bookshelf’ looks heavily inspired by it . I wonder if any of the IDSA judges noticed the blatant reference.

From the writing and the photos, you can see just how damn good those guys were back then. And this is the thing, the design team members at Apple have somehow managed to be so consistently good that they have the most enviable reputation out there.

But the team members over the years have changed with different stars at different times. Just looking at the list of people who have worked for Apple as consultant or in house designer is like reading a list of the most influential designers in the whole business.

Hartmut Essingler (founder of frog design) was hired as a consultant by Apple in 1982 to create a design language known as “Snow White” which has classics like the Macintosh II and theMac SE. He was the corporate design manager until around 1989. He later went on to work on the Next Computer for Steve Jobs. He continues to run frog design, which is now co-owned by Flextronics.

Bob Brunner ran the design team at Apple in 1990 and assembled a world class design team, hiring Daniele DeIuliis, Tim Parsey and Jonathan Ives. He is now a partner at Pentagram in SF.

Tim Parsey, worked as studio manager for Apple in 1991 to the mid 1990s. He went on to become the VP of design at Acco, then VP of design at Motorola, and is now VP of design at Mattel.

Ray Riley, worked with Bob Brunner from 1989 and left Apple in 1995. He now runs the Explore group at Nike.

Jonathan Ive, founded Tangerine in London in 1990. Was hired by Apple in 1992 (when he was 25!), designing the Twentieth Anniversary Mac in 1996. He took over after Brunner’s departure, and is now Senior VP of design at Apple. Has led the design group at Apple to become one of the most important teams in design history.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Credited with Jerry Manock (probably the least known designer in the world) for designing the first Macintosh computer. Hired Hartmut Esslinger in 1982. Left Apple in 1985 going on to found Next Computer Inc (which is the inspiration behind a lot of OS X) and Pixar in 1996. Returned to Apple in 1997 as interim CEO. Lead Apple into the status of cultural icon.

Printed in 1997, before Ive’s influence was really felt publicly, the book is unfortunately now out of print. It can be found used for $125-$185 at places like Amazon or Abe books.

As a side note, Paul Kunkel went on to write a similar book called Digital Dreams : The Work of the Sony Design Center.